Whether you’re a freelancer pitching new clients, a consultant expanding into new markets, or an influencer looking to score big brand deals, your personal brand matters. It’s the happy face you put out to the world. The face that says, “I am trustworthy, positive, and amazing to work with.”

No one needs to know that behind your online presence sits someone who just wants to forget about their brand image, watch Netflix, and eat chips.

But you’re here because, for whatever reason, you need to rebrand yourself and you’re not quite sure how to do it.

Maybe you’re ready to get real and share more of your Netflix-and-chill side with your followers. Or maybe you did something stupid and everyone seems to hate you and you need to ditch the old brand and try on a new persona. Or maybe you’ve simply matured and have new skills – professional and personal growth that you didn’t have before.

Here’s the good news: personal rebranding is easier than you think.

Remember when people used to refer to Taylor Swift with snake emojis? Remember how she deleted all her social media, made the snake emoji her own, and became one of the most famous and successful female singers of all time?

You can do something similar, even if you’re not as rich or famous as Tay Tay.

These tips can help.

1. Figure out your core values

Has your sense of fashion changed since 2009? 

We thought so. 

It’s quite possible that your core values now are different from the ones you had when you began your journey into the world of business.

Before you make any big changes to your brand, do a little bit of comparing and contrasting. First, jot down the core values your brand is displaying now, before your rebrand. Take a good, hard look at each one.

Does it still fit you? Or have you outgrown it? And what value would you put in its place? 

Let’s go back to Taylor Swift. Once upon a time, she was known as the darling of country music. She even had a touch of a country accent when she spoke and sang. (No, really.) 

In 2014, she said a very firm goodbye to the country music scene and established her place as a pop icon.

And look at her now – she’s even helping other country stars in their rebranding efforts to move away from the genre.

As you discover what your core values are now versus when you began your brand, think about how much you want to share with the world. You don’t have to share everything, but your new personal brand should hint at the deeper parts of you: the values that guide your work.

2. Get to know your audience

Once you know more about who you are, it’s time to figure out who your audience is. 

Maybe your audience will change a lot after the rebrand; maybe it won’t. But you won’t know until you do some digging. 

Here’s how: 

• Talk to your existing audience. Create surveys and send them to your current followers, clients, or customers. Ask them what they value about your brand as it is now and what changes they’d welcome.
• Analyze social media platform insights. Chances are you already have social media accounts on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. Look at who is engaging with your posts, what they’re saying, and which types of content get the most attention. Analytics tools on these sites can also give you key demographic data. 
• Monitor industry trends. If you’re refreshing your brand identity, chances are other people in your industry are, too. You don’t need to copy them, but you can learn from their process. What changes are they making? How are their followers responding to these changes? 

As you get to know who’s in your target audience, you can use tools like PickFu to narrow down their preferences when it comes to your rebranding process.

In a recent poll, an entrepreneur asked a group of 15 men which brand name they’d prefer for a line of men’s grooming products. The two choices?

Manclave (Option A) and Titan (Option B).  

This small focus group delivered a resounding yuck to the Manclave option. Only one person voted for Option A. Everyone else picked Option B. 

Why did these potential clients and buyers spurn the name Manclave? Because it is “potentially gross or unhygienic sounding,” as one respondent said. And because it “tries to do too much.”

On the other hand, the audience liked the brand name Titan. That’s because it evokes images of “strong statues or strong figures like Gods,” as one man said. It’s also “memorable and easy to pronounce.”

When you know who you’re speaking to, you can ask them questions every step of the way in the ongoing process of rebranding yourself. This sets you up for success when you officially ditch your previous brand and go live with the new one.

3. Ask experts for help

There’s a big, tricky thing about rebranding efforts that we must point out. Unless you have the time and money to pause your business and focus entirely on the rebrand, you probably still need to keep working through the whole process.

Let’s say you run a true crime podcast. Tired of the gruesome and sad details you constantly have to research and talk about, you want to switch to the self-help sector. But for financial reasons, you still have to produce the true crime podcast until you’ve got a robust new business with the self-help stuff.

This is a good time to ask a pro for help. A digital marketing expert or social media manager can help you figure out crucial aspects of your new personal brand statement – like your unique selling point. Or the best ideas for rebranding your logo design. Or ideas for a complete social media makeover, from your LinkedIn profile to your YouTube channel.

Remember: one of the common reasons for bad rebrands is sloppy execution. So take your time, ask a pro for help, and focus on making a careful and successful brand or career change.

4. Communicate openly

Chances are you won’t reveal your rebrand all at once. When you start learning more about who you are as a person, you might want to showcase that self-improvement right away.

That’s fine, but be honest about it. The crappy thing is that almost none of us likes change, even if it’s for the better.

If you dump a huge rebrand on your audience without ever hinting at it, you’ll face resistance. Instead, tell your customers and followers that they’ll notice a slow but steady implementation of new branding.

Loop them into the whole process. Make fun, behind-the-scenes features of your logo redesign, online profile makeover, and personal website transformation. If you’re making a big transition, like changing from true-crime to self-help podcasting, let them know. Don’t just spring the change on them right in the middle of a juicy episode of All is Not OK in Oklahoma.

This gives your current customers time to adjust and prepare for the changes. 

Maybe your rebrand will end up appealing to a different audience. And who knows? Many of them might join you as you transition from one brand identity to another.

5. Test out your fresh look

Before you finalize a new logo, website, or overall look, ask your target audience what they think about it. 

This step can feel scary, especially if you’ve put a ton of work into the new design. You may feel terrified that everyone will hate it.

But what’s worse: learning people hate it before you go public with it, or learning it after you go live with it and you lose a bunch of followers? 

There are several ways to ask your audience for input on your new look. If you have a big social media following, post sample logos there and ask your followers what they think. Read the comments to get an idea of your audience’s thoughts. 

This also helps your followers feel like they’re a part of your rebranding efforts, which helps set you up for success. 

You can also use PickFu to test logos, personal websites, and even social media profiles with your ideal customer base.

All you have to do is put an image of your logo or paste a link to your website into your PickFu poll. That’s what this PickFu user did, asking respondents in their target audience (women) to visit the site:

“Assuming you like the products sold on this website, would you shop here? Do you trust this store and would you make a purchase? If not, explain why? And if yes, what do you like about the site?”

After visiting it, the women had mixed opinions: 

• “No I would not, something on the page loads at the top with a bunch of stuff that does not look like the site is secure.”
• “I would need to read reviews from other consumers first. So, I can’t say if I would trust until I learned more. I like the graphics and layout of the site.”
• “I might shop here if I was looking for sheets, though it feels like it might be pricey. I like bamboo and I like the 1% commitment. The website looks legit, but since I haven’t heard of it, I’d probably look it up, maybe check with the Better Business Bureau before buying anything. The images on the site are nice and it has a clean layout.”

This feedback suggests the business owner should go back and review its reputation-related information on the web – things like third-party customer reviews and their BBB rating if they have one. If everything looked good, they could move forward without any big changes.

The moral of the story? 

Testing your new branding can help you avoid snafus like badly designed logos or sites that don’t fully showcase your skills evolution.

6. Update your portfolio and case studies

You’ve done your brand market research. You’ve exhausted every tip you found when you researched, “How do you rebrand a company or personal brand?” Your new brand looks amazing and seems to be connecting with your intended audience. 

Now it’s time to show off! 

Reach out to your clients and ask for testimonials. Prominently display them on your website, social media profiles, and other marketing materials.

While you’re at it, update your portfolio so it shows your most current work. If you’re a freelance writer, add a fresh round of bylined articles to your portfolio. If you do graphic design, update your portfolio to show off the work you’ve done for recent clients.

In other words, don’t forget to showcase your skill set as part of your new brand strategy.

Want a quick, easy way to test your new brand? Try PickFu’s pre-built, discounted logo test and website review poll templates. Within a few hours or less, you’ll have data and written feedback from your target audience about your rebrand.

FAQs

How do you reinvent and rebrand yourself?

Rebranding is an ongoing process where you figure out your strongest points as a person or business and use them to refresh your brand. Whether you’re making small updates or a major overhaul, consider hiring a brand strategist to help figure out your unique selling proposition. And don’t forget to bring your audience along for the ride!

What are the steps to successfully rebrand yourself professionally?

There are many potential steps you could take to rebrand yourself. But we suggest six key ways: 

• Figure out your core values
• Get to know your target audience
• Ask experts for help, like social media marketing pros
• Communicate openly with your customers or clients
• Test out your fresh look with tools like PickFu
• Update your portfolio and case studies

With these steps, you can identify your unique value and bring your best rebranding efforts to the table.

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